Best city to lose your wallet

positron

Reader's Digest dropped 12 wallets in a number of cities to see how many will be returned, and the results are kinda interesting (warning - crappy multi-page slideshow-y item).

http://www.rd.com/slideshows/most-honest-cities-lost-wallet-test

Most honest is Helsinki, Finland, and second most honest - Mumbai, India, and Spain and Portugal at the bottom of the table (most dishonest).

What are the chances of getting a wallet back if you lose it in Dublin? I would have thought Dublin would rank on the top 10, ahead of London.

Discuss.

RoboRat

Depends if its north or south of the liffey :-)

the groutch

RoboRat wrote: »

Depends if its north or south of the liffey :-)

*Grabs popcorn*

Ould Mr Brennan

Depends on if I find it or not

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Depends on who found it first - a banker or a homeless person.

Wossack

good sample size

keano_afc

RoboRat wrote: »

Depends if its north or south of the liffey :-)

I agree. You'd more than likely get a wallet returned if dropped in Malahide, as opposed to Dolphins Barn or Tallaght. I presume that what you mean?

Gone Drinking

This annoys me.

I remember being out in town one night and heading back to a house for a party. One of our mates came in with a mobile phone and said he had found it in the nightclub we were in.

He was planning to keep it but I took the phone off him, rang the last dialled contact and told them we had the phone. That if they could advise the person who owns it to ring we can arrange to give it back the next day.

The owner rang and we agreed to meet the next day to return it. She was delighted.

Ps. Not saying we didn't have any craic with the phone. One of the lads stripped down covering his bits with just a santy hat and we took about 10 pictures of him with the phone in various positions.

IvaBigWun

positron wrote: »

I would have thought Dublin would rank on the top 10, ahead of London.

You must be fúcking joking.

All over America you can put coins into street vending machines to buy a daily newspaper. They'd all be smashed up and stolen on the first day in Ireland

SherlockWatson

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

Depends on who found it first - a banker or a homeless person.

Banker more likely to keep it.

positron

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

Depends on who found it first - a banker or a homeless person.

Yep, bankers are greedy bast*rds.

Merkin

Wealth of the finder has very little to do with it

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2412241/Harley-Street-doctor-tourists-lost-wallet-containing-2-500-Starbucks-tried-claim-HIS.html

People thought that a about the dublinbikes before they were implemented but it never happened.

whiskeyman

I've lost my wallet 3 times in Dublin over the course of my lengthy drinking years...
each time I got it back!
Once by post - person who found it sent it to the company who issued my work security swipe card that was in the wallet... the sent in on.
Once the person actually called to my door (found name in phonebook).
Other time it was left into Garda station.

pretty lucky sod I am!

As good karma, if I ever find anything I try to find the owner / give to the guards.

Dick Turnip

SherlockWatson wrote: »

Banker more likely to keep it.

If this was QI there would be a siren going off right now.

Jason Todd

I travelled up to Dublin (from Waterford) near Christmas a good few years back (2003) with a wallet stuffed full of notes ready to get in some serious presents shopping.

Long story short, was getting on a Dublin Bus, paid the driver and must have dropped my wallet near the base of the stairs when going up top. Next minute a girl popped her head up at the top of the stairs, spotted me and waved the wallet at me. She must have seen the completely confused look on my face so she said, "I think you dropped something". I was so shocked I barely got out a heartfelt thank you when she handed it back to me.

So if that was you, and you're reading this... THANKS!

I was young enough at the time, and had heard horror stories about muggers, junkies etc in Dublin, so had my preconceptions smashed minutes after getting off the train!

SherlockWatson

Dick Turnip wrote: »

If this was QI there would be a siren going off right now.

So you disagree then?

positron

IvaBigWun wrote: »

You must be fúcking joking.

No, I do think Dublin would do better than London. Like others have already pointed out - Dublin Bikes etc.

I personally have pointed out / called people back to pick up their wallets from shop counters (Centra/Spar etc) twice in last three months. And my own good experience is that I left my motorcycle parked up on a busy side walk in north inner city street and accidentally left the keys in the ignition in full view of anyone walking by - for the whole day! Twice!! And each times the bike was not nicked - someone handed in the keys to a nearby shop and they returned it to me.

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo

Gone Drinking wrote: »

This annoys me.

I remember being out in town one night and heading back to a house for a party. One of our mates came in with a mobile phone and said he had found it in the nightclub we were in.

He was planning to keep it but I took the phone off him, rang the last dialled contact and told them we had the phone. That if they could advise the person who owns it to ring we can arrange to give it back the next day.

The owner rang and we agreed to meet the next day to return it. She was delighted.

Ps. Not saying we didn't have any craic with the phone. One of the lads stripped down covering his bits with just a santy hat and we took about 10 pictures of him with the phone in various positions.

That's one of the gayest things I've read on here.


The rest of your post implies you're sound so I feel a little bad pointing this out.

biko

Tbh it's not the "best city" at all.
It's best out of a number of large cities (some capitals, some not) that doesn't particularly represent the country as a whole.
And there's a pretty heavy bias toward Europe.
I suppose this "investigation" was just a fun thing for American tourists to know when they travel overseas.

In this one some are again mentioned, which gives them credit.
http://www.tourism-review.com/top-10-most-honest-cities-in-the-world-news1231

Arawn

I was in letterkenny for a while, in the space of 2 weeks i lost my expensive phone and my wallet while going to pay house rent for the month, got both back in the next day. Donegal people are fair nice

Pherekydes

Concarneau. My wife dropped her purse there, full of holiday money, and when we went to the local police station to report it missing some locals were handing it in.

I found a purse full of holiday money in LVSC a few years' back and it was returned to its owner intact.

There are honest people everywhere.

TheGoldenAges

Left my wallet on the bus over the summer, never saw it again

sparkthatbled

I found a wallet recently in the car park of balbriggan market. Dropped it into the Garda station and turns out he had been in an hour before to report it missing/presumed stolen. I think it's the only decent thing to do and maybe some nice karma will come my way.

tin79

IvaBigWun wrote: »

You must be fúcking joking.

All over America you can put coins into street vending machines to buy a daily newspaper. They'd all be smashed up and stolen on the first day in Ireland

Yes just like all the city bikes where. Oh wait no...

meemeemee

I read the story. The Daily Mail reports that the wallet had contact details.

In the UK, there is a law called " Theft By Finding ".

That means if you " Find " something, and their is reasonably good reason to be able to identify the owner, and you keep that item, that is Theft. So were there to be say a Driving Licence, or Bank Card, or other item which could lead to identifying the person who lost it, and therefore that would open the possibility to getting it back to them, that is "theft".

A couple of years ago, one of those small branches of Tescos had it's freezers break down. The staff threw out all of the frozen food into a bin. Some enterprising locals, spotting the stuff in the bin, retrieved it. I was in bins ! The Police were called, they were arrested and charged with "Theft By Finding". Absolutely riduclous !

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1357741/In-court-charged-theft-finding-woman-took-food-Tesco-bin.html

--Kaiser--

I know a girl who lives in Singapore and she says she feels sorry for any Singaporean who goes to another country, for example they would leave their laptop in a cafe for an hour while they went wandering around shops and it would be there when they got back because crime is so low as to be non existent

keith16

IvaBigWun wrote: »

You must be fúcking joking.

All over America you can put coins into street vending machines to buy a daily newspaper. They'd all be smashed up and stolen on the first day in Ireland

People said the same about the Dublin bike scheme.

Seachmall

whiskeyman wrote: »

I've lost my wallet 3 times in Dublin over the course of my lengthy drinking years...
each time I got it back!
Once by post - person who found it sent it to the company who issued my work security swipe card that was in the wallet... the sent in on.
Once the person actually called to my door (found name in phonebook).
Other time it was left into Garda station.

pretty lucky sod I am!

As good karma, if I ever find anything I try to find the owner / give to the guards.

This post makes me happy, maybe even brightened up my day.

Don't know why, but it did.

osarusan

Lost my wallet in Japan leaving a train station. Wasn't even concerned about it not being handed in - sure enough it was there an hour later.

Faith+1

Nothing would surprise me about Dublin. They'd have the wheels of a Jumbo if it flew too low.

bumper234

I would hope it was this homeless man who found it

Homeless man finds $40,000 in travelers checks and cash, hands it over to police

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/16/20522040-homeless-man-finds-40000-in-travelers-checks-and-cash-hands-it-over-to-police?lite

Fratton Fred

positron wrote: »

No, I do think Dublin would do better than London. Like others have already pointed out - Dublin Bikes etc

Does London have a problem with their 'Boris Bikes' then?

Belfast, apparently is the second safest city for tourists, after Tokyo.

They love tourists up there. They can't stand each other mind, but they love visitors.

Wattle

I'd say Tokyo. The Japanese have this civic pride thing that would put most nations to shame.

MadsL

Deleted User wrote: »

People thought that a about the dublinbikes before they were implemented but it never happened.

In Dublin, the City Council vandalise the city so the locals don't have to. The JC Decaux signs are horribly placed.

I'm suprised they managed to place any wallets in Prague - home to the most skilled pickpockets I have ever seen: Pass me the wallet Dave....Err John, it's gone again.

Some guy apparently just left his wallet behind getting off the bus and someone else just called after him to give it back
That's nice

holystungun9

RoboRat wrote: »

Depends if its north or south of the liffey :-)

the groutch wrote: »

*Grabs popcorn*

Hey you! Come back with my popcornnn!!

anncoates

Had my wallet snatched before in Dublin city centre and it was actually handed in to the nearest Garda station with all the cards intact.

Left my phone in a taxi before (albeit in the pre-smartphone era) and the driver answered it and left it into a Garda station for me.

Collie D

Threads like this make me despair about some people's negative opinions of their fellow human. There's a real "All people are scum who would knife you and take your wallet as soon as look at you" attitude with some people.

There are plenty of people who would return wallets and a lot who wouldn't. I've done it twice that I can think of. Lost mine and got it back empty but wouldn't stop me from doing it again.

Perhaps those saying a wallet lost in Ireland/Dublin wouldn't be returned are giving an insight into their own actions should they find one.

anncoates

Fratton Fred wrote: »

Belfast, apparently is the second safest city for tourists, after Tokyo.

They love tourists up there. They can't stand each other mind, but they love visitors.

Tourists mad enough to pay good money to drive up and down a kip like the Shankill Road in a smelly taxi driven by a terrorist are to be cherished, I guess.

BeerWolf

I've lost 2 wallets, with it being stolen directly from my person...! 3rd attempt, felt some pickpocket trying to go through my bag behind me, gave him a swift elbow to the face and carried on.


Once was someone running like a lunatic for the bus, dropped his wallet without realising - was really thick with cash in it leafing out from the side. I picked it up and proceeded to give chase like a lunatic as well, handing it to him in the bus... :pac:

Legs.Eleven

whiskeyman wrote: »

I've lost my wallet 3 times in Dublin over the course of my lengthy drinking years...
each time I got it back!
Once by post - person who found it sent it to the company who issued my work security swipe card that was in the wallet... the sent in on.
Once the person actually called to my door (found name in phonebook).
Other time it was left into Garda station.

pretty lucky sod I am!

As good karma, if I ever find anything I try to find the owner / give to the guards.

The only city I've ever had my wallet returned (I've lost/had it nicked numerous times) is Dublin. I've been robbed multiple times here in Madrid (usually while out on a night out) and you really have to be careful with your stuff here. I've (tried) to return money and I also returned a credit card (both left at an atm) here to their owners.

Caliden

Portugal didn't fair too well in that article. 1 out of 19 wallets returned and the couple that returned it were tourists....

Legs.Eleven

Caliden wrote: »

Portugal didn't fair too well in that article. 1 out of 19 wallets returned and the couple that returned it were tourists....

I'm a massive fan of Portugal and the people there but honesty with this kind of stuff is not their strong point (same goes for here in Spain as the article highlighted). I have no idea why. The Spanish are very aware of it and will openly admit to it. It's just how it is.



I remember I found 150 Euro at an ATM in the centre of Madrid after the owner of it walked off. I'd just got to the country and EVERYONE around me told me to take it. After waiting for the guy to come back for an hour, I gave 50 Euro to a street cleaner, another 50 to the fella selling the lottery and kept 50.

In hindsight I should've handed it in to the bank but everyone I spoke to said I wouldn't have been able to trust them either to return the money to.

I was really surprised by Rio De Janeiro. When I was there, almost everyone in my hostel got robbed or mugged except me (I'd nothing on me worth robbing).

Lucena

sparkthatbled wrote: »

I found a wallet recently in the car park of balbriggan market. Dropped it into the Garda station and turns out he had been in an hour before to report it missing/presumed stolen. I think it's the only decent thing to do and maybe some nice karma will come my way.

I don't believe in karma. I do believe in the nice fuzzy warm feeling you get from doing the right thing.

Love that feeling!

Legs.Eleven

Legs.Eleven wrote: »

I'm a massive fan of Portugal and the people there but honesty with this kind of stuff is not their strong point (same goes for here in Spain as the article highlighted). I have no idea why. The Spanish are very aware of it and will openly admit to it. It's just how it is.



I remember I found 150 Euro at an ATM in the centre of Madrid after the owner of it walked off. I'd just got to the country and EVERYONE around me told me to take it. After waiting for the guy to come back for an hour, I gave 50 Euro to a street cleaner, another 50 to the fella selling the lottery and kept 50.

In hindsight I should've handed it in to the bank but everyone I spoke to said I wouldn't have been able to trust them either to return the money to.

I was really surprised by Rio De Janeiro. When I was there, almost everyone in my hostel got robbed or mugged except me (I'd nothing on me worth robbing).

I was the same except it was more like 30. It was a ticket machine as well at all hours of the morning. I wouldn't say there was any chance of finding out who owned it so we donated it to charity instead

Hobbes

positron wrote: »

(warning - crappy multi-page slideshow-y item).

Normally clicking print on the page will give you a better one to read.

http://www.rd.com/slideshows/most-honest-cities-lost-wallet-test?v=print

castletownman

Whatever about the best city to lose your wallet in, Dublin is definitely the best city for emptying your wallet in on a night out. The feckin' price of the drink

Anyone

El Segundo

I gotta get, I got-got ta get it

alexlyons

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

Depends on who found it first - a banker or a homeless person.

SherlockWatson wrote: »

Banker more likely to keep it.

positron wrote: »

Yep, bankers are greedy bast*rds.

Merkin wrote: »

Wealth of the finder has very little to do with it

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2412241/Harley-Street-doctor-tourists-lost-wallet-containing-2-500-Starbucks-tried-claim-HIS.html

Indeed... Fundraising bit not so relevant

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2013/09/16/homeless-man-boston-money-turned-in-glen-james/

myfriendtom

I've had a wallet arrive back in the post , fully intact after losing it.
Someone had found something with my address on it and posted it back to me, totally anonymously.
Restores faith.